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Stanford's Lightweight Boats Advance To IRA Grand Finals

CAMDEN, N.J. - The No. 2 Stanford Lightweight women qualified two boats for the Grand Finals at the IRA National Championships Friday. The Lightweight Eight advanced through the preliminary heat, while the lightweight four booked its place thanks to a second-chance race in the repechage.

Racing in the second heat of the day, the Cardinal eight took control of the heat early on with a three-quarter boatlength advantage over second-place Princeton at the 500-meter mark. Stanford worked to open up the margin as the race progressed and finished about six seconds ahead for the 2,000-meter race.

In the first heat, top-ranked Wisconsin crossed the 500-meter mark in first place with a slight advantage and would slowly pull away from a great race between Georgetown and Harvard. Georgetown was the eventual second-place finisher and thus earned their spot in the Grand Final directly from the heat.

Later in the day Harvard and Bucknell qualified for the Grand Final by finishing first and second in the repechage.

'It was great to see the racing finally get under way,' commented Stanford lightweight head coach Al Acosta. 'The margins in the finals look like they could be closer than ever.'

Stanford's four came in fourth in their qualifying heat and were forced to go to the repechage in the afternoon. In the repechage the Cardinal moved through Georgetown in the second of the race to finish first and claim one of the two remaining spots in the Grand Finals.

'I'm really proud of the girls for regrouping after their heat and coming through with a solid race,' commented lightweight assistant coach Katie Sweet.